Here’s the bad news… a polystyrene (Styrofoam) cup in the landfill will almost certainly outlast every skyscraper in New York City.  That cup will take about 500 years to be absorbed by the Earth.
There are at least 25,000,000 Styrofoam cups tossed into our landfill every year. You get the picture?
But that cup is literally just the tip of the Waste Management iceberg.
As our “disposable” society proliferates and developing countries start filling their landfills with stuff… we humans must take responsibility for making sure we don’t suffocate beneath our own mountains of waste.
What can we do?  Plenty!  Check out these links for practical ways you can help stem the tide of the indiscriminate dumping of our 21st Century waste.

Chemicals
OK… you’ve cleaned out the garage or the shed and you have a half dozen cans, bottles, and jars of everything from paint to old motor oil.  What do you do?  What you don’t do is to pour anything into the sewer or down your drain.  These chemicals will find their way to the Gulf, The Bay…or a retention pond down the street.  Click here for what to do about unwanted chemicals if you live In Pinellas County. Hillsborough County residents click here.

Recyclables
In the 21st Century we will be recycling more than ever before.  Our landfills are “filled” and we can’t afford to throw anything away.  The cost for cleaning up our collective “mess” will far out-weigh the costs of re-using as much as we can.  The list of recyclables is long and getting longer. 

For a complete list of what you can recycle in Pinellas County and how click here.
Hillsborough County residents can check out recycling here…
Pasco County residents click here…
Hernando County residents click here…

For more information on eco-friendly waste management, check out the Pinellas Living Green Expo, coming May 3 and 4th to the Harborview Center in Clearwater.  Click here.